May 11, 2007
MINIPRENEURS | An emerging consumer trend and related new business ideas

microentreneurs are cool too.

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:: discrevolt ::

DiscRevolt provides physical solutions for digital delivery of media. For artists, DiscRevolt is a way to sell downloads through artist-specific download cards. Artists upload songs to the DiscRevolt site and design artwork for a plastic download card. DiscRevolt prints the cards with a unique redemption code on the back, and artists then sell them to fans at live shows. Fans enter that access code on the DiscRevolt site and receive credits to download that artist’s media.

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May 10, 2007
E-Gold founders charged with money laundering

Easy to use and obtain, the services of E-Gold have been used online to buy a whole host of illegal services. Denial-of-service attacks, stolen credit card information, complete identities and according to the US Department of Justice even child porn.

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OPTELO - Micro-paiement audiotel/SMS+/WHA et affiliation webmaster
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“ micro-paiement à l’acte, le code Allopass est obtenu : par appel téléphonique (numéro surtaxé), par SMS, par Carte Bancaire, par Neosurf (carte prépayée), par W-HA (fournisseurs d’accès
Solutions sécurisées de paiement et micro paiement sur Internet •
Planet Finance - microfinance et microcredit
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Summary

Problems
- problem with mental barriers and poor user interface
- problem with user adoption
- problem with companies reinventing new protocols and technologies instead of widely used solutions
- problem with units: too low. 1 cent is higher than the cost of electronic transactions

Example of successes:
- iTunes: they start at 1$ instead of 1cent
- XBox Marketplace, Wii Points, PS3

Users asking for micropayments
- independant bands
- bloggers
- independant illustrators

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“ At least one critic has suggested that the mental transaction cost problem may be solvable in some circumstances, via innovative user interfaces that input persistent customer preferences. However, micropayment vendors have generally failed to address this problem.
Micropayment via Wikipedia •
“ Support your favorite independent blogs & websites - give a penny for their thoughts. Each time you visit a website or blog on the indieKarma network, your account is seamlessly debited just one cent. It’s the smallest of micro-payments, directly supporting the blog or website you’re enjoying. If you so choose - you may edit your donation to more - or nohting at all
IndieKarma •
“ Bee-Tokens are a virtual currency that are purchased from Bee-Tokens.com. They are accepted by any website that participates in the Bee-Tokens currency method. Each Bee-Token is worth USD $0.10. Bee-Tokens are a great way to pay for pictures, fan fiction, music, white papers, essays, horoscopes, donations, and other Internet merchandise.
Bee Tokens takes the Sting out of Internet Commerce •